Sick
little buggers, those children. A sk any parent of a preschooler or kindergartner, and they’ll tell
you: They bring
everything home with them.

And it isn’t just because they do gross kid things, either. Children are hard-wired to
spread disease. Their bodies “shed” viruses for far longer than adults’ do, long after they’ve been
sick themselves, said Dr. Dennis Cunningham, physician director for epidemiology and infection
control at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

A
baby who has had a cold can give that cold to someone else for about a month after the symptoms
stop. Grown-ups typically stop shedding germs after their symptoms go away, he said. And once they’r
e interacting with others at day care or school, the problem just grows as they spread colds, flu
and intestinal bugs to their peers.

“Young kids may not share their toys, but they sure share their germs,” Cunningham said.

There are limits to what grown-ups can do to stop all of this, but teaching vigilant hand
washing and proper sneezing (into the elbow, not the hand or your teacher’s face) and keeping sick
kids home are proven measures to lower the transmission of illness.

Sick or recently sick kids should especially be kept away from others who are fragile, including
people with severe asthma or those undergoing chemotherapy.

At the Columbus YWCA’s child-care programs, hand-washing is a big part of every day, and program
director Jenn Hannah is proud to say that kids in the school-year program seem to get sick a lot
less than others in their classes.

The kids wash before they eat, after they eat, after the restroom, after the gym and after they
come in from outside.

They even use peer pressure on each other if they’ve fallen short on a good, solid hand-washing.
(You should use plenty of soap and water and get through the ABC song before you quit, Hannah
explained.)

The other key to prevention is vaccination, said Dr. Teresa Long, Columbus’ health
commissioner.

She and Cunningham have pushed for better vaccination coverage in school-age kids and have
brought flu vaccine to the schools to encourage more protection in that group.

The H1N1 pandemic drove home the fact that young people could be severely sickened by flu, even
die from it.

And experts have long worried about youngsters bringing illnesses, including flu, home to their
most-vulnerable family members, including infants, grandparents and people with illnesses that
weaken their immune systems.

Outside of schools and day-care settings — including in restaurants and stores — parents need to
stay on top of good hygiene, Cunningham said.

That can mean giving kids a lift to reach the soap and water and making sure they still get in a
good washing even if they’re struggling at an adult-size sink, he said.

In 2010, more than half of infectious disease outbreaks in Columbus were linked to schools or
child-care centers, Long said.

This year, it’s about 40 percent so far.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, has been a top concern in recent years as several outbreaks have
been documented in schools.